(April 2011)
I wish you could ride along with us as we make trips to people scattered around the countryside. Here are a few of those kinds of visits we made last month. Cram into our car, at times with more people than you would have thought possible, to the house of. . .
Emanuel with his mom (Sonia), grandparents, & cousin
. . . Sonia’s grandparent’s in Cerro Ybu. Greet her parents, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin (still in high school and recently married.) Sing, listen to Bible stories, and discuss what they mean for us today with this extended family who had never before been in a Christian meeting like this. My memorable moment here was using the outhouse before leaving and having a big cow stick its face in the top half of the open door.
. . . our landlord’s mom in Lote. Watch the kids run around playing relay races, eat ground peanuts with sugar, help fix a corn bread dish that’s baked by fire in their brick 
oven, hear their heartbreak for the nearby family with 10 kids whose dad is a drunk, gather lots of farm produce they give you as a thank-you and try to protect those bags from the Cebu (enormous white cows.) Most significantly, listen to lots and lots of Bible stories and hear these friends articulate new truths they’re understanding from the Bible.
Victoria with her 5 youngest children, two months before her death
. . . a family with 10 kids & many health problems in Primavera. Take their mom home from the hospital to find the oldest 5 kids gone (out picking cotton) and the youngest five being taken care of by the 8-year-old. See their incredible poverty. Walk through their fields and pick some manioc. Pray with them and read a Psalm.
. . . some friends in Ita Angu’a. Frantically slap at mosquitos as they attack every inch of visible skin. Have an enjoyable visit anyway, and laugh a lot. (For those of you who speak Paraguayan Spanish: Our friends talked about the new bathroom at their village school which doesn’t have running water. Older (jr high & high school) kids can use it by carrying buckets of water from the well. Dan says, “Estudian de balde!”) Read the Bible, pray, leave encouraged.
